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Ipperwash Update - July 2001

A recent newspaper story reported the discovery of a memo that traced the decision to be confrontational with the Stoney Point Peoples' to the Premier's office. The memo was in administrative 'shorthand', with "P" used for Premier, "ONAS" meaning the Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat, and "AG" denoting Attorney General. All three entities were named as responsible for the measures to remove the Indigenous land and treaty rights activists from Ipperwash Park. This is just one more piece of evidence that the highest levels of Ontario's Government were directly involved in provoking the police assault that took Dudley George's life on September 6, 1995. In a reasonable world, under a democratic government, this sort of information would bring about a rapid full, fair and public investigation. However, clearly, we do not live in that kind of world.

So, in the world where we DO live, the David-and-Goliath battle continues... to bring out the truth about who must assume responsibility for the human rights violations that led to, and occurred on, that evening.

Pierre George (brother of Dudley, who was with him that night and continues the Stoney Point/Aazhoodena land rights campaign) has demanded answers from the OPP and the SIU about items confiscated from him that have never been returned and about matters relating to the racist memorabilia produced by the OPP to commemorate their assault that night. He plans to acknowledge the past six years of inaction and cover-up by holding a demonstration at the Coroner's office in London, Ontario on September 6, 2001.

In conjunction with the Stoney Point Support Group, he will be demanding that the Coroner call an inquest now that the SIU investigation is complete. The Coalition for a Public Inquiry into Ipperwash will be organizing related activities for Toronto-area supporters. More details on this can be had from Robin Buyers at robinbuyers@sympatico.ca or will be forthcoming in August. Stay tuned.

One place we do have a glimmer of good, or at least interesting, news pertains to the future of Sgt. Deane. About six months ago, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal to have his conviction over-turned. Now he has nowhere to turn for relief from the finidng that he is guilty of criminal negligence in the death of Dudley George (for firing on a man he knew to be unarmed during a legitimate political protest in a public facility). At long last, the OPP have realized that it's not such a great thing for them to keep him on their payroll, "serving" the people of Ontario -- and that perhaps he shouldn't have been lent the approx. $300,000 that he spent trying to fight his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court. Watch for Ken Deane to try to pull some others down with him if he takes the big fall at internal OPP hearings - perhaps losing his job and as well if it is decided that he should repay those legal costs to the association. A cop like Deane -- who may feel he was just doing the job he was sent to do at Ipperwash -- might not like finding himself unemployed with a $300,000 debt. Will the powers-that-be make him a good enough offer so that he is content to live with his name muddied by this conviction, or will he fight back?

Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law.

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This page created July 8, 2001